Back home very late after a 5 hours drive and straight back to work today. With the help of Ted for the 3 days it was, in my humble opinion, a rather good show with a fair amount of interest on all 3 days. Happy to say there were no major problems with either layout or the loco's/rolling stock although, I think I've worn out one of the SW's. It was getting VERY slow by end of 2nd day but, had been running non-stop for 6 hours plus half of saturday.

The TT display at Liverpool exhibition 2018

My small US layout - Montour Mine No. 4

Still working on mine tipple but this seemed to create more interest as most people stopped to read the signs

No, motors are good but I have 3 units that are either open frame or short out when on the track.

One is just weird!!! Goes as soon as I take one of the 4 screws ( any screw ) out that hold the circut board to the chassis. Put it back in and it stops. take it out and it goes. Leave it in but loose and wont go. Stripped it down completely, replaced insulating tape with larger pieces on chassis where motor fits, still no go.

When I have more time I'll tinker further. I bought some of those cheap Chinese motors you showed before. I'll probably just bypass the circut board and so a simple wire up. I'm not into DCC so don't need all the fancy electronics.

No, motors are good but I have 3 units that are either open frame or short out when on the track.

One is just weird!!! Goes as soon as I take one of the 4 screws ( any screw ) out that hold the circut board to the chassis. Put it back in and it stops. take it out and it goes. Leave it in but loose and wont go. Stripped it down completely, replaced insulating tape with larger pieces on chassis where motor fits, still no go.

When I have more time I'll tinker further. I bought some of those cheap Chinese motors you showed before. I'll probably just bypass the circut board and so a simple wire up. I'm not into DCC so don't need all the fancy electronics.

Ian

That is what I have done, bypass the circuit board, as the desire for DCC is not strong within me, as well as the fact that at least two of my SWs suffered damage to the board, possibly due to my own mistakes early on when trying to troubleshoot the motor issues.

If you do use those cheap Chinese motors, there are two things worth mentioning: They run about the same speed as the stock motors, so the overall speed of the SW will be the same. Also, I have found that they are actually really durable for the price.

Regarding straight wiring of the motors, either the MTB can motor or the cheap Chinese motors, it is not a straight-line connection process, as if you connect the left-hand terminal of the motor to the left hand tower terminals, and likewise right-hand to right-hand, the engine will run "backwards" - in order to obtain "forward" motion when polarity is set for "forward", you must connect the left-hand motor terminal to the right hand towers, and the right-hand motor terminal to the left-hand towers.

>> Regarding straight wiring of the motors, either the MTB can motor or the cheap Chinese motors, it is not a straight-line connection process, as if you connect the left-hand terminal of the motor to the left hand tower terminals, and likewise right-hand to right-hand, the engine will run "backwards" - in order to obtain "forward" motion when polarity is set for "forward", you must connect the left-hand motor terminal to the right hand towers, and the right-hand motor terminal to the left-hand towers <<

Thanks. I'll try and remember that when I get back to them but, knowing me I'll forget and they'll go backwards on the first test run.